Article
An Outline of Intersubjectivity: The Development of Recognition
Jessica Benjamin's 1990 paper in Psychoanalytic Psychology argues that the psychoanalytic theory of the self needs an intersubjective dimension alongside the intrapsychic one. On her account development follows two complementary lines: the internalisation of object relations, and a separate trajectory along which the child gradually becomes able to recognise the other person as a subject in their own right, with the attunement and tolerance of difference this requires. Looking at differentiation in the first two years of life, she rereads Mahler's rapprochement phase as a struggle for recognition whose outcome is not only object constancy but the beginning of the capacity to recognise another's subjectivity, and she takes up Winnicott's account of the use of an object: the other's survival of destruction is what allows them to be found as real and outside. Recognition is thus a tension between asserting oneself and acknowledging the other, which can break down into domination; and differentiation is not simple separation but a continual breakdown and repair of mutuality, a view that leaves room for fantasy and aggression in a relational theory of the self. The paper was reprinted as "Recognition and Destruction: An Outline of Intersubjectivity".
Main ideas
- Self-development has two complementary aspects, the intrapsychic and the intersubjective, and theory needs both.
- The capacity for mutual recognition develops along its own trajectory, distinct from the internalisation of object relations: the child comes to recognise the other's subjectivity, with attunement and tolerance of difference.
- Mahler's rapprochement phase can be reread as a struggle for recognition, whose outcome is not only object constancy but the beginning of recognising another person as a subject.
- Following Winnicott on the use of an object, the other's survival of destruction is what lets them be found as real and outside the self.
- Recognition is a tension between self-assertion and acknowledging the other, which can collapse into domination.
- Differentiation is a continual breakdown and repair of mutuality rather than mere separation, which keeps a place for fantasy and aggression in relational theory.
What it shows
- 1988
Jessica Benjamin introduced Mutual recognition
Benjamin took the idea of recognition from Hegel's account of master and slave and made it a psychoanalytic concept in The Bonds of Love (1988), where its breakdown explains domination. Her 1990 outline of intersubjectivity set it out as a line of development.
- 1990
Jessica Benjamin developed Intersubjectivity
Benjamin's 1990 outline proposed an intersubjective theory of development, centred on recognising the other as a separate subject, to stand beside the intrapsychic theory rather than replace it. Like Subjects, Love Objects (1995) and Shadow of the Other (1998) extended it to gender.
Jessica Benjamin developed Relational psychoanalysis
Benjamin was one of the first New York analysts of the relational school and brought feminist theory and the idea of recognition into it. Mitchell and Aron reprinted her outline of intersubjectivity among the founding papers of the tradition.
- 1990
Jessica Benjamin reworked Use of an object
Benjamin read Winnicott's destruction and survival of the object as the moment the other is recognised as a subject outside one's control, recasting a concept about object use as a step in mutual recognition.
Donald Winnicott influenced Jessica Benjamin
Winnicott's paper on the use of an object, with its destruction and survival of the other, is a cornerstone of Benjamin's theory of recognition.